Over-50

We Boomers Had Seen That Show - Smirk

This is nothing new: All those CEO departures happening, with the explanation of their wanting to spend more time with the family or to attend to other pursuits.

According to a study by Exechange, 52% of those exits represent being forced out. That charade has been going on since I had been an executive communications scribe for the Fortune 50 in the late 1970s. Here today, then poof. No real explanation. Don't dare ask. 

Usually members of the board of directors want to prevent bad publicity for themselves. After all they hired that leader. Then some things went very wrong.

However, this ritual of secrecy may go the way of the rotary phone. That is because of the increased focus on corporate governance. That is part of the ESG (Environmental Social Governance) movement. 

Scrutiny of board behavior has been surging.

When WeWork couldn't pull off the IPO not long ago, there was attention paid to the passivity of the board.

There are accusations floating around that the passive members of the board at collapsed Theranos should have been hauled into court.

Recently the board at Activision Blizzard, before the announcement of the proposed acquisition by Microsoft, had been vilified for supporting CEO Bobby Kotick. 

Obviously, boards will have to learn to navigate the growing demand for transparency. In itself that could create brisk business for law firms with ESG practices and public relations agencies skilled in reputation management. 

However, there have been boards which had been straight with constituencies. Those include Apollo's as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal engulfed its co-founder and CEO Leon Black. Board members had an internal investigation by law firm Dechert. Here you can read it. 

Soon enough Black stepped down as CEO. For a bit he remained as Chairperson of the board of directors. But then later he also stepped down from that leadership role on the board. 

Apollo's quick recovery from that scandal may provide the template for other businesses needing their CEOs to exit.

The takeaway is: Don't attempt to spin the mess. Consult with the lawyers what is legal to say. Polish the wording with the public relations experts. Yes, board members should admit errors of judgment, maybe offer to step down themselves. Then the business moves rapidly on.

Feedspot selected Law and More as one of The Top 100 Legal Blogs.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Legal Creep - Leon Black's Legal Drama Could Burst into High Public Relations Theatrics

For seemingly forever one-time high-flyer in the world of finance - Leon Black - has been ensnared in legal dramas. Both those inflicted on him and the legal actions he has filed.

Now, with a filing last Tuesday the saga has reached into the core of the integrity of the public relations industry.

Black alleges that Steven Rubenstein of the communications powerhouse Rubenstein Public Relations had been the source of "smear campaign" against him. Here is my summary of that, published today in O'Dwyer's Public Relations

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Raw Pragmatism: Taking on Protective Coloring So Not to Be Targeted for Being "Too Jewish"

Antisemitism, like many versions of discrimination, has its own unique contours.

One, as an essay in The Wall Street Journal points out, is that kind of bias has been targeted at those who "do the Jewish thing." An example would be attending a high-profile Jewish place of worship. There is walking rather than driving on the Sabbath. Another would be navigating the city in dress-up attire on a Jewish holiday. 

At one time, that was described as being "Too Jewish."

Think about it: Victims of recent antisemitic attacks in the U.S. were obviously "Too Jewish." Those occurred in Fort Worth, Texas, Jersey City, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Those in the front lines of battling antisemitism, such as the elite law firm Paul Weiss, might shift from noble abstractions to raw pragmatism.

Instead of denouncing that bias as so wrong, they might issue practical guides for how to neutralize the perception of being "Too Jewish." That might be labeled "assimilation."

I learned that hard lesson, first slowly and then very quickly, after I relocated from the New York Metro Area in 2014. Digital technology allowed me to transport my communications boutiques to where the cost of doing business would be lower.

Growing up in Jersey City, where there is a large Jewish population, I had a fluid ethnic identity. No, I am not Jewish. But I might have been. By socializing, going to school together, and helping each other in crisis, we first-generation Americans picked up each other signature traits.

Yes, my friends developed my ethnic gestures.

I regularly slipped into Yiddish.

On Friday nights if my Jewish bros came over I lit a sabbath candle. 

Therefore, I was totally unprepared for being harassed once outside that zone of ethnic seamlessness. Turns out I was way "Too Jewish."

One night a neighbor in Tucson, Arizona, got drunk. That's when I was informed I was not welcome in my adopted hometown. He told me straight: "We don't like Jews here." 

What was and is "Too Jewish?"

Part of the answer is:

• Using Yiddish.
• Attending cultural events at the Jewish reform temple.
• Talking what was experienced as talking too much about my business. And, it turns out, talking too much. And what was assessed as talking too loud.
• And what I couldn't help was: the deep New York accent, Eastern European body style/facial features, thick brown hair, and dark complexion. 

Of course, I cut out what I could of "Too Jewish."

Also I "gave them what 'they' wanted." That is, I tell them that I am half Jewish. Mother's side (my last name is Italian). Interestingly, that admission of Jewishness often will halt much of the aggressive interrogation about supposed Jewish culture such as "pushing the kids to excel academically" and "not turning on the lights on the Sabbath." Smirk. Smirk.

That has been my problem-solving. It seemed to make me less of a target. 

Of course, absolutists might object to taking on such protective coloring. They should be informed that if they continue to be "Too Jewish," they put their communities in danger. Not just themselves. Read William Shakespeare. Human nature is not sweetness and light.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

NFTs and More - We Boomers Have Been There Before with the Counterculture

"Investors and creators of nonfungible tokens -- a market that has ballooned to $44 billion, Chainalysis data show, and attracted fans from Justin Bieber to Melania Trump -- face billions of dollars in taxes and rates as high as 37%, according to tax experts. Internal Revenue Service officials who deal with tax evaders say they are gearing up for a crackdown." - Allyson Versprille, Bloomberg, January 14, 2022.

Because the NFT niche - both for creators and investors - is so relatively new there are many questions about taxes. The IRS hasn't issued much guidance. 

WHAT WE KNOW

Among the knowns for creators is that their profits if they sell, for instance, on OpenSea, will be taxed as ordinary income.

For investors, if they used crypto (which is classified as property, not a a security), that will be taxed as a capital gain.

Investors should know that they may have to file quarterly. And, even though the IRS is not providing too many details on how much should be calculated, investors are expected to come up with good enough math as not to be assessed as underfunding their tax liability. Meanwhile, they should anticipate the possibility of being audited.

Ambiguity won't get anyone in the crypto loop off the hook with the IRS.

BRING A LAWYER ALONG

In addition to the tax challenges associated with NFTs, there are plenty of other kinds of legal ones. Jones Day highlights them in its white paper. 

A number of law firms are establishing formal crypto/blockchain practices to manage for clients all the aspects, be it tax or IP, associated with what is being derived from the new technology. Those early adopter law firms range from Wilson Sonsini to Paul Weiss. 

Paul Weiss' crypto/blockchain practice  is structured this way:

" ... [It deals with] securities, broker-dealer regulation, commodities regulation, transactional intellectual property and technology, tax, company and fund formation, financing, token fundraising and alternative securities offering options (i.e., Reg A+, Reg D/506(c), Reg S, Equity Crowdfunding) ..  securities litigation, regulatory enforcement, economic sanctions and anti-money laundering, and cybersecurity-focused practices."

MYTH OF POWER TO THE PEOPLE

As with the late 1960s counterculture, blockchain technology has been positioned and packaged as Power to the People. That has been wrapped in the rhetoric of decentralization. That's tied with a bright bow called "The End of the MiddleMan." Go out there and do your own financial thing. Same for art. 

Nice ring to that. But when it comes to digital assets, there is much in the system in terms of must-dos. Or what will be interpreted as applying.

Smirk. That system includes crypto exchanges. You can't enter the crypto anything w/o a crypto wallet. And there are gas fees for the coins such as Ether. Those all involve middlemen. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Reality - Not Only Is It Overrated, It Tends to Be Unbearable

"It’s possible to start to prefer engaging in virtual spaces because of the accommodations that they provide. As an avatar, I can be tall and skinny, I can be whatever I want. And if we start to shift into preferring a virtual life, that may then negatively impact our ability to engage in a non-virtual life, whether it’s self-confidence or belonging or social anxiety." - Rachel Kowert, researcher at Take That, quoted in The Wall Street Journal's article "The Metaverse's Effects on Mental Helath: Trivial or Troubling?" January 9, 2022.

The experiences in the metaverse happen through technology.

But, the virtual reality created is in essence not much different from the art the cavemen put up on the walls of their dwellings.

Or how Don Draper of "Mad Men" positioned and packaged the Kodak Carousal.

And the strategy of brilliant defense lawyers.

It's all altered reality.

There have always been humans who have been effective in redirecting minds to myriad other dimensions. That is from the same-olds of daily life on planet earth.

In general, we consumers of the altered reality have been grateful to be catapulted out of the numbing routines of everyday.

That's what drove us to follow "US v Elizabeth Holmes." What the defense team from Willliams & Connolly conjured up transported us into an analogy of the experience provided by that popular television series "The Twilight Zone." The lens was unique for floating into what-ifs. 

In an interview with Super Lawyers, Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp captures that process in this way:

“In difficult matters, I will think about my clients’ problems night and day until a solution emerges. I’m a big believer in late-night epiphanies.” 

"Solutions," whether they are in the legal sector or my field of blockchain marketing communications, represent reality that has been massaged. When contoured in a way that fits with what humans will accept at the time the creators are rewarded well. Those goodies range from brandnames to wealth to simply more work assignments. 

Rather than isolating us humans altered reality often creates social cohesion.

We came together during "US v Holmes."

We come together playing video games.

And most of all we come together, including in our relationship with ourselves, in creating those realities. There are few experiences more heady and more uniting than being part of a team configuring a successul influence campaign. Those can be moments of collective ecstasy.

It was poet T.S. Eliot who noted in "Four Quarters" -

"Humankind cannot bear too much reality."

Unfortunately, those who are in the current front lines of tsk-tsk  in general and about the metaverse specifically don't get it that reality tends to be way overrated.

The less I seek reality out the more professionally successful I become and the more joyful.

It could be in the public interest to file a lawsuit against those tsk-tsks for creating a public nuisance and seeking injunctive relief.

Leave us alone to imagine. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Drive for Alto - Be an Employee and on the Side of Planet Earth

The end of Uber and other ride-share enterprises which have the gig model could be near.

And what could put Uber out of business is the new business model created by Alto and companies such as Revel and Kaptyn. 

As Axios report, Alto, a vertically integrated company, has its own fleet of cars and its drivers are employees, not gig-economy contractors.

Already Alto is operating in its hometown of Dallas as well as Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami. It will soon enter D.C. and Silicon Valley.

The model operates on a kind of subcription basis. Members pay a monthly fee of $12.95 or $99 annually. The perk is priority status during peak periods. The "fare" is comparable to that of Uber.

Drivers can earn $15.50 to $18.75 hourly, plus company-paid health insurance.

Alto is on the side of the angles not only because of its employee model. It also operates its own fleet of cars. That means that it can orchestrate the total shift-over to electric vehicles. It plans to accomplish that by 2023.

That's not easy to pull off for the Uber model in which its contract drivers own and operate their vehicles. It is expensive for the individual drivers to make the transition to EV. Actually, it may be impossible.

In its marketing Alto can position and package itself as in the public intererst. It stands for its employees, its customers, and planet earth.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Why We Love Those Defense Lawyers (going all the way back to OJ Simpson Dream Team)

"Though the jurors generally believed Ms. Holmes that she was abused by her former deputy and boyfriend ... they quickly concluded that prosecutors were correct in closing arguments that those allegations had no bearing on whether Ms. Holmes committed fraud against patients and investors during her time running Theranos." - The Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2022

The WSJ also noted that some jurors experienced what we might think of as the "abuse defense" as a raw play for sympathy.

So, we have to wonder why the skilled defense team from Williams & Connolly included that in their tactics. In addition, the WSJ reported that the jurors gave poor grades to the authenticity of defendant Elizabeth Holmes as she took the stand - a rare move in criminal cases. And a quite risky one.

Surely, Williams & Connolly had to recall how the abuse defense fell flat among jurors in the trial of Clara Harris. That Texas dentist murdered her dentist husband with a car. Harris alleged her husband had treated her shabbily. What the jurors essentially concluded was that she had the resources to have extricated herself from that situation. Before release from prison, Harris had served 15 years in prison. 

If lessons are learned, going forward defense lawyers might veer away from putting out there an abuse narrative in trials of upscale females and from putting them on the stand.

Also, coach the client to hold the tears. It places an emotional burden on jurors. I had predicted Holmes would try it. And that she did. 

"US v Elizabeth Holmes" presents myriad negative lessons - that is, what shouldn't be included in the strategies and tactics of defense lawyers. However, the Williams & Connolly team earned their fee. They had little to work with. But work it they did, especially through aggressive cross-examination. 

So, here we are. We have been through those high-profile courtroom moments - Holmes and also Maxwell. And we are back to being utterly fascinated with the defense bar. As always. In our collective memory bank will always be the O.J. Simpson Dream Team. 

Sure, earnest plaintiff lawyers such as David Sanford (employment law) and Charles Harder (reputation protection) advocate for victims of alleged crime, civil and criminal. They are the heroes of society. 

But, defense lawyers are the ones whose duty is to protect the rights of those accused of wrongdoing. Obviously, they enter complex territory in terms of the law, ethics, social mores, human touchpoints, public relations, and spiritual traditions.

That's way more more interesting than the chase after righting wrongs. It had been Renassiance author John Milton who hammered in "Paradise Lost" that Satan is the show. Not God. 

The mind share will always go to the defense lawyers. Even if they miss one. Especially if they miss one, like fictional Atticus Finch and Williams & Connolly's real Kevin Downey and Lance Wade. We wonder how the fumble could happen, given their brilliance and passion. But, we forgive. And we feel for them. 

The legacy of the oddball justice of the defense bar belongs to Johnnie Cochran, Alan Dershowitz, Brad Karp, Mark Geragos, Leslie Abramson, and there will be more added on.

The ethos of what they do had been captured by Wall Street defense lawyer Karp (whose day job is chairing Paul Weiss) in an interview with Super Lawyers:

 “In difficult matters, I will think about my clients’ problems night and day until a solution emerges. I’m a big believer in late-night epiphanies.”

The unique contours of the solution is what dazzles us. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

A Time of Our Best Selves - Can We Do It Again?

oster follow-ups. Not even any methodically compiled scientific data. 

It was just COVID. And us.

Death was not only possible. It was probable.

Sure, put on the mask. Sure, do social distancing. Sure, wash the hands.

But cases only kept increasing.

There was some pop-up leadership. But little of it was sustainable, that is, not emotionally.

Many of us had the feeling that Andrew Cuomo was enjoying the limelight of the pressers a bit too much. As for the governor of the state where I was reeling, he seemed authentic but, come on, we had no confidence in his scientific expertise. His pressers only frustrated us.

Then, there peeked through points of light.

One was in a stunner of an essay in The Hill. Dentons' global chairman Joe Andrew got us to see how lucky we were if we could stay at home in lockdown, either working or not working. Many others, Andrew pointed out, were not so blessed. They had to go into the office. He observed:

" ... the concept of 'going to the office' is intrinsically entwined with income inequality and the unequal risks many are taking."  

That one sentence shook us out of self-pity. Not long after, we as a society began saluting those who had to go into the office. Yes, the nurses, the grocery clerks, and the firefighters.

Another surprise flicker of light came in the form of a vast collective pro-bono digital venture organized by Paul Weiss' chairperson Brad Karp. Those people who were going into the office as well as those who weren't had been contracting the virus. The majority of them did not know where to find information about resources for assistance and how to loop into them. Those thousands of lawyers mobilized by Karp from throughout law firms in the US created an online all-in-one that COVID victims and their loved ones would find easy to access. 

Later that was expanded in scope into a more comprehensive resource. As the site currently reads:

"The coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread to scores of countries and infected many thousands of people around the globe. We provide guidance  ... for boards and management in navigating this crisis and will update this page as developments warrant."

In the midst of those macro efforts there was the wattage of intense generosity by very ordinary people.

An elderly man on a fixed income adopted the dog of a neighbor who had died of COVID. He took on the vet bills, food, and grooming fees. Not so nimble himself, he also took on the walks.

An industrial-trades client of mine funded an exhibit in proximity to a hospital. It recognized the workers who were, yes, going into the office. I wrote the language for it.

A woman who didn't have to go into the office but could operate remotely agreed to care-take the baby of a relative down with COVID. That meant enduring distractions, didn't it. Not easy when struggling to do work. 

Now, here we are again. We never expected that. And we need replacements on the front lines for the Andrews, the Karps, and large-hearted neighbors who got us through the first time.

Will they appear?

"The Matrix Resurrections" - Is the Evil Psychoanalyst Right?

"The Matrix: Resurrections," like "Spider-Man," is a success at the box-office.

Also, it is catching on in terms of memes.

Specifically, what is resonating is the metaphor of the blue pill, given by Thomas Anderson's villain psychoanalyst.

That has surfaced in the collective concsiousness as a symbol of mind control. That chokehold is in contrast to the red pill which opens the human being to the truths of existence.

Anderson makes the shift from blue to red. That one decision propels him through the door to his mission to change the world. His soulmate in that is his romantic partner Trinity. 

The messaging of the film is not simplistic. For example, what controls Trinity is the concept of the family. No, the family - and by extension any other system - is not in itself bad. The peril to individual autonomy and global values is set in play when that value overrides all others.

The analogy, of course, is this: Nothing wrong with working long dedicated hours in Big Law. What is wrong is embracing that ethos as the only one which makes sense for how to live a life. The bad effects are not simply the overwork. In addition, those knocked off the partner track could wind up broken. Their design for professional life had been too circumscribed - and determined for them externally. 

No surprise, that one-dimensional thinking in Big Law is reinforced with the gala rewards. That's the way the blue pill is coded to operate.

Take the dynamics at Kirkland and Ellis. There are the giant bonuses. More recently what had been added to the goodies is a more promising shot at partnership. K & E reduced that rite of passage by a year to nine.

However, even internally in Big Law viewing the practice of law through that tiny lens is being questioned.

In a Bloomberg Law interview, Paul Weiss Chairiperson Brad Karp, for instance, indicated a need to press down on the brakes on extreme work.

Interestingly, in the influential film "King Richard," the audience experiences the reverse of the driven helicopter parent. The father of Venus and Serena Williams insists that his children have a normal childhood. The road to stardom won't be non-stop exclusive practicing and entering competitive events. One afternoon, instead of practicing, the whole family packs it in and drives off to Disney. 

It's possible that "taking the blue pill" could replace "drinking the Kool-Aid" as the buzzphrase for caving to external sources of influence. 

The issue, though, is how seriously will society consider the implications of the blue pill?

The evil psychoanalyst smugly assesses human nature as eager to be controlled.

However, there may be a lessening of that force field with the decline of trust in institutions, ranging from government during COVID to Big Banking during the era of crypto. There may seem to be no choice other than making one's own decisions about values and then how to live them.

Way back in 2015, a Yale instructor William Deresiewicz warned about success-directed mind control in the book "Excellent Sheep." That detailed how willing ambitious youth in elite colleges are to buy into whatever was labeled as strategies for professional upward mobility.

More recently, some youth have opted out of that whole college pressure-cooker to invest what would have paid for tuition and living expenses in crypto. A number of them, documents Jefferies, have emerged as the new market segment to purchase lux goods, both in brick-and-mortar and in the metaverse.

Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal has been featuring for about a year, too many of those excellent sheep have wound up with staggering student loan debt and low-paying jobs. Yes, they opted for the blue pill. 

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

The Entrepreneurial Dream of Owning a Franchise - Bring Your Lawyer Along, Check Out the Neighorhood

It was the entrepreneurial dream of blacks getting in on the lucrative opportunity of owning a McDonald's frachise. All constituencies in the loop, ranging from government to blacks themselves, were enthusiasitc about that.

In her book "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America," Marcia Chatelain captures that optimism. Then she chronicles how quickly things started going very wrong for the black owners. Published a year ago, the book continues to rank high on Amazon: 86,273.

Influential Bloomberg tells that story today. The Bloomberg coverage includes the lawsuits.

The largest one is "Christine Crawford, et al. v McDonald's USA." Here is a copy of that complaint. The more than 50 former black franchisees contend that the fast-food's biased policies were a primary factor in their failure.

Not that operating a franchise is easy. As I analyze in this article pubished in ST Magazine, the skills required include those of management. Also, those opting for this kind of venture should bring their lawyers along. Contract law dominates the arrangement. That is usually on the side of the corporation. In addition, comprehensive due dilgence must be performed about the location. Key variables there range from competition in the area to crime. In addition, mid-course, overall demand could go poof. The craze could be over for X or Y product or service. 

What Bloomberg doesn't go into is what makes "Crawford" such a seminal lawsuit. Yes, Bloomberg does mention that McDonald's USA is being represented by former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch. But that isn't the story per se.

The story that matters is two-fold.

One, Lynch is  woman of color. If the lawsuit gets to trial there is the high-profile issue in the court of public opinion that this skilled lawyer is defending a giant corporation against blacks who struggled to have a piece of what America promised.

Is that morally right?

Of course it is just fine in the ethos of defense lawyering. 

The other issue is that Lynch is a partner in elite law firm Paul Weiss. It is headquartered in Manhattan. Recently Law360 Pulse rated Paul Weiss as among the top 10 prestigious law firms in the US.

The optics on this one are not good: The Goliath of a powerful law firm taking on the little people.

Should McDonald's USA have selected a low-profile local law firm to represent it?

One recalls the speculation that it was parachuting in a brandname lawyer like F. Lee Bailey to represent Pattty Hearst that resulted in her conviction and prison sentence.

In the Rhode Island lead paint public nusiance trial the clients of the three lawyers imported into town from brandname law firms were convicted the first time around. The client of the local lawyer from SmallLaw had been let off the hook.

When I interviewed that blue-collar jury, some indicated their praise for that local lawyer. When I covered the verdict I posited that it had been a strategic mistake for major corporations to have hired white-shoe law firms for that kind of trial involving harm to children.

Meanwhile, the decision to purchase a franchise has always been fraught with peril. Bias can do the owners in, yes. But so can myriad other realities. "Crawford" should be a cautionary tale for all considering this entrepreneurial dream.

Marketing communications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and much much more (including waterproofing, roofing, and shipping containers). You want results. And that’s exactly what you get partnering with Genova Communications. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.